After the meeting, Kingsley called me, but I wasn’t quite ready to talk to him. I was still embarrassed and didn’t know what to say to him. Instead, I spent most of the night curled up in my bed with a king-size chocolate bar and a reality show. Violet and Christie watched with me for a few hours, but then left.
Eventually, I had to dislodge myself from the bed because my bladder got the best of me. As I was walking back from my room, I heard Violet scream. The terrors were back. Lola must have been with her boyfriend and Violet didn’t want to tell me. I rushed to my room and grabbed my phone. She promised to keep her phone on loud in case something happened.
I called again and rushed out to pound on her door. After two additional calls, she finally came to the door. Violet took one look at me and burst into tears. I walked into her room and we climbed on the bed.
“What I’m going to do? I can’t sleep here anymore. It’s ridiculous. He’s in jail, so why am I still scared?”
“I don’t know. I’ve only had one semester of psych. Maybe it’s time for you to talk to someone. Speak to a therapist outside the school.”
“I think I might look into that at some point. I want to be strong, but he broke into my room, and every time I fall asleep, I see him coming in here again.” The tears continued to fall and I grabbed the tissue box next to her and handed them off.
“All right, let’s get it together for a moment. He is in jail. He can’t come touch you. If you see him this weekend, it could be over. Hold out until then.”
She turned and looked at me and I saw the sadness in her face. “I don’t think that plan is going to work. I think I was just being naïve. David said his investigator is working on something, but we haven’t heard any updates since Sunday. I know things take time, but I just don’t have the patience for that. And who left that note? Who took the pictures? Was it Trent the whole time or did he also have help? But why was he even involved in the first place?”
“I’m not sure, but that’s what the professionals are for. Let the investigator handle it. Berneli would only hire the best, so I’m sure he is going to find a way to fix all this.”
“Yeah, I’m sure Berneli did hire the best.”
“Leave it to them and you’ll be back with your man doing dirty, dirty things to each other.”
“Uh, I hope the universe hears that! I’m hornier than I think I’ve ever been.”
“On that note, I’ll leave you be. Just make sure you keep your phone on,” I insisted, and headed to the door. As I was about to walk out, Violet stopped me.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier.”
“It’s okay. I know you were just trying to show you care. Your little body can’t handle too much emotion,” I teased, and winked at her.
“Obviously! But in all seriousness, why are you trying so hard to make this work? You really just met the guy.” She spoke in such a soft voice and I saw pain and hurt in her eyes. Something about the way she was looking at me made me think.
I twisted my hands together, trying to find the words. I climbed back on the bed and just started talking. “So, my parents had this super fast relationship and married quickly. They just knew they were right for each other. My mom says it felt right in her gut. When Kingsley smiles at me, I feel that. I don’t know, it’s hard for me to explain. He seems to just know me and he’s always trying to do these elaborate things because he wants to impress me. But the truth is, I’m just impressed he wants to be with me. He’s ready to fight Jason he wants to be with me so bad. It’s a good feeling.”
“But…”
“I know. We’re having some problems. But you and Berneli did too. You thought he was seeing other girls.”
“And he wasn’t.”
“Well, Kingsley may use occasionally but so does Kyle and we still love him. Give me the chance to help him realize there are better ways to cope with issues. I really think I can help him. I want to help him.”
“I don’t feel good about it.”
“I didn’t feel good about Berneli, but I trusted you. Don’t you trust me?”
“I do.”
“Good, I decided you weren’t a crazy lunatic and became your friend so my judgment can’t be completely off.”
“Well, there are some who may argue with that,” she said with a smile. There was still tension in her jaw and her eyes still looked sad, but at least she seemed to want to give me a chance.
“Exactly. That’s all I was trying to get out.”
“But it couldn’t hurt to learn a few things,” I said, looking down at the floor.
“Well, just make sure you do it to yourself, I mean make sure you learn it for yourself.”
I nodded, feeling a bit better.
“Do you want me to stay in here tonight? Is Lola not coming back?”
“In all honesty, I don’t actually think Lola is going to be coming back to school. A lot of her stuff is gone.”
I looked around the room and noticed her closet was half empty and her dresser, usually filled with make-up and hair stuff, was now pretty bare.
“Did something happen with Tyler?”
“I don’t know. I saw her yesterday and she wouldn’t talk about it.”
“I hope she’s all right.”
“Me too. I’ll ty to talk to her again, but I don’t think it will do any good.”
“Well, my offer to stay here still stands.”
“No, I’m just gonna turn the TV on and try to fall asleep to an old show or something. Lola likes to fall asleep to Happy Days and I think I could use something like that right now.”
“All right, well, let me know if you change your mind. I’ll turn my phone on loud.”
***
As I was getting ready for my morning class, Kingsley called again. Part of me wanted to pick up, but I didn’t want to get distracted. I did need to get to class and I didn’t want to fight with him anymore. I let it go to voice mail, tossed the phone in my tote bag, and headed out the door.
Thankfully, I had managed to pass my math class last semester, but I had a new problem. Statistics. It was a completely different language and I was actually worse at it than pre-calculus.
In other words, I needed to focus. As I left the dorm building, a feeling of déjà vu came over me. Kingsley was standing there with coffee. But this time, I wasn’t happy to see him.
“Babe, please, let’s talk.”
“Kingsley, I don’t want to talk to you right now. I have class in ten minutes and I don’t want to be distracted.” I kept walking, hoping he’d let me be, but knew he wouldn’t.
“Come on, just give me a minute. I thought about what happened and I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you. I know it’s not your fault that you didn’t know what to do and I just let my emotions take over.” He was walking fast to keep beside me and talking way too loudly.
I stopped and pulled him aside. “Listen, things got heated and I get that. I really do need to get to class right now, but maybe we can talk later?” I hoped he’d agree. I really did want to talk to him but I was kind of scared of what he might say. He didn’t sound like he was going to blame me, but what if he did? I already blamed myself enough, if he said it too, well, I wasn’t sure what I’d think.
“You’re right, babe. I wasn’t thinking, but I feel awful and I want to fix things with you. I shouldn’t have kicked you out of my room,” he said, dropping his voice. “I need you in my life.”
I smiled, blushing as he said the words I needed him to say. I didn’t even have to ask. He just got me. “Really?”
He smiled and kissed me gently. “Girls like you don’t come around every day, and if I thought I’d screwed it up, I couldn’t live with myself. I get it. I don’t want to disrupt your studies. Can we meet up after your class? Please? I have a gift to give you, but I think we should be in private when I give it to you.” He reached his hand out and stroked my arm gently. I felt a warmth flow through me again and when I looked up at his eyes, they were completely clear.
“Meet me at the coffee stand after class. We can talk then, but you didn’t have to get me anything.”
“I wanted to.” He kissed my cheek and then backed away slowly, still grinning big at me.
Then I looked at my phone and panicked. My class was set to start in six minutes and I was definitely going to be cutting it close.
Much to my dismay, I had to sit in the front row. Didn’t these people know the rules? True, we didn’t have assigned seats, but technically, we had assigned seats.
The class was a disaster, as always. I had no idea what was going on nor any idea how to figure it out. But I was super visible in the front and the professor called on me. Of course, my answer was wrong and I was unbelievably humiliated. This was going to be a long semester. In a worse mood than before, I walked to the coffee stand and ordered a large french vanilla latte. As I was waiting for my coffee, I heard my name.
“Hey, Christie,” I said, giving her a weak smile.
“What’s up? How are you doing?” she asked, and then placed her order.
“Not much. Kingsley is coming and we’re going to try to talk things out. He was waiting outside my room with coffee, but I needed to get to class.”
“Well, that’s good. He definitely needs to do some sucking up.”
The barista called my name and I grabbed my cup.
I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea that he had to suck up after doing something wrong. I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I’d see what happened when Kingsley got here. “So, what else is going on?”
“Not much. Go grab a table so you have one when Kingsley gets here. I’ll wait with you.” She waved me off and I picked one of the tables off to the side. As long as he didn’t speak too loudly, no one would hear us. I was a little nervous.
I took my phone out of my bag and double checked my messages. Maybe his class went late or something. Letting out a sigh, I put the phone away and turned to look at Christie. She was smiling at a guy who seemed to be holding her coffee hostage.
Frankly, I’d kill someone if they tried to take my coffee. She wasn’t as crazy as I was.
This guy stood a little over a head taller than Christie, but then again, she was wearing tall, chunky leather boots. Though his height was helped by his hair. It was black, brushed out of his dark almond-shaped eyes, and gelled straight up. There was a good chance he used more hair gel than Violet but it looked good. He looked good and I definitely thought Christie noticed.
I heard her giggle loudly and couldn’t help but watch more intently. She was flirting. I’d never seen her in action, but I always thought she’d be this sex kitten. As it turned out, in front of a hot guy, she turned into a giggly school girl just like the rest of us. I felt a little bit like I’d found out there was no Santa Claus.
She started to walk toward my table and I gave her a skeptical look.
“Well, who was that?”
“Um, his name is Shane. He grabbed my coffee by mistake. We ordered the same thing, and the barista placed it on the counter and said Frappuccino instead of my name. So he grabbed it and I stopped him, you know, because I wasn’t gonna let him take my nectar of the gods.”
“That’s my girl.”
“Anyway, he tried to pull the whole, ‘oh, I’ll give you your coffee if you give me your number’ thing. But I have a boyfriend, so I don’t want to just give out my number.”
“Right. But then why were you giggling?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it was the leather jacket or the muscles underneath it. I mean, did you get a look at him? Geez, I could do some real damage to a body like that.”
“Oh really?”
“Hey, just because Rob is down south doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a good-looking man when I see one.”
“Yeah, he was pretty fine. Are you into that bad boy thing?”
“Who isn’t? I don’t know. Rob is basically the polar opposite of a bad boy. He is just your typical altar boy.”
“Is that a problem?”
“No, it’s great. It means I trust him.” She smiled at me but it looked forced and she looked a little scary. Her eyes were too wide and her eyebrows went up too high. Whatever was going on with her damn sure didn’t look great.
She looked down at her perfect manicure and searched for what were clearly made up flaws.
“Annabelle?” Kingsley asked. He had walked up to the table while we were talking.
I looked at Christie and the forced but scary smile was back. “Hi, Kingsley. I just stopped by for a coffee and saw Annabelle. I’ll see you guys later.”
Kingsley gave her a smirk. “Thanks, we have some things to talk about.”
“I’ll call you later?” I asked her. I didn’t want to leave her when she was opening up to me, but I did need to deal with Kingsley.
“You’d better, bitch.” She slipped her sunglasses on and headed out the door.
“She’s pretty vulgar,” Kingsley pointed out, and made a face. “I don’t like women who swear like that. I hope she doesn’t rub off on you.”
“Kingsley, she’s one of my friends…” I started, trying to defend her.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m supposed to be groveling, not insulting your friends.” Kingsley reached out and took my hand.
I looked down at our hands together and tried not to smile. They fit perfectly. “Kingsley, I’m so sorry for the loss of your friend. I really feel for you, but—”
“You don’t even need to say it, babe.”
“You were nervous, I was upset. Everything was just a mess. I accept your apology. Do you accept mine?”
I couldn’t help but notice he didn’t actually say sorry. But I quickly dismissed the thought. Some people just had an issue apologizing. I knew he meant it and that counted for me.
“I just need to know if you were using that night.” I looked down at the table, unable to look back up at him. As soon as I said it, I realized I really did need to know this. To me, if he admitted it, we could make something work. If he didn’t, well, I wouldn’t worry about that just yet.
Kingsley reached out and gently pushed my chin up. “Yeah, I did. I’m sorry I lied to you. I was embarrassed that I’d sunk to that level. I was just devastated and didn’t handle it right. That’s why I yelled at you. Under normal circumstances, I’d never speak to you that way. I want you to know that.”
“Are you intending to use again?”
“I can promise you that it won’t happen again. I’ll even go see the school therapist about my issues if that will make you feel better. If I get their help, I won’t need to use. I just, I don’t always know how to handle all the thoughts in my head. But I’m done with that life. Will that work for you?”
“Actually, I think seeing the therapist would be a good idea.” I really liked this plan. It was the perfect solution. I could tell Violet and Christie he was going to do something about the drugs and then they could see the amazing guy I normally saw.
“Then I’ll make an appointment and get that sorted out. Please say you forgive me.”
I looked at him and felt that tingly sensation in my stomach again. It was his eyes. They were clear and bright and obviously full of love. They completely took me over and I couldn’t stay angry with him if I tried.
“All right, go see the therapist and I’ll forgive you.”
Kingsley smiled big, practically showing me his wisdom teeth, and pulled my chair close to him. I laughed as he pulled me in for a kiss. “I don’t actually have your gift on me, but I promise it will be worth it.”
“Kingsley, you didn’t need to get me a gift.”
“Uh, don’t say that. I want to spoil my girl and make up for my actions. Let me make it up to you.”
I nodded and kissed him. The terrible feeling in my gut seemed to melt away as I felt a whole different emotion flowing through me. I definitely needed to get a handle on it. I should not have been that horny while sitting in the middle of the school building.
***
Kingsley and I separated and went to our next classes. He was on call that night so he said he couldn’t meet up, but he’d be planning something fun for Saturday night and I’d get my gift then. I spent most of the night with Violet trying to figure out my statistics. She had taken it last semester and passed with a B. Berneli had helped her out and, eventually, she grasped the concepts. When that failed, we also got together on Thursday with Berneli in the EET office for another lesson.
Violet was desperate to see him and I was desperate to pass my class. They figured I’d be a good buffer and no one would assume they were up to no good if I was in the room. I was happy to help if it meant I could pass my class.
Even though Violet mooned over him and there were some stolen kisses when I was trying to apply the notes Berneli gave me, he really was a great help. I generally had an idea of what was going on, or at least I thought I did. We left the office and I felt a lot better. However, Violet did not.
“I’m just not sure what I’m going to do about Saturday. In reality, I don’t know what to say to him and I really don’t want to see him anyway. It’s not going to help the terrors. I just hoped the investigator would have more information for us by now. Maybe I need to transfer schools before they find out.”
My heart sank. How could she leave me here? Okay, that was selfish. Would changing schools actually help her? No, it couldn’t. “Stop, I don’t think that’s the solution in the middle of a semester. School just started, so you’re not going to be able to get accepted in another school this semester and you can’t drop out. Then he wins. I know you hate waiting, but you need to let the investigator do his job.”
“Right, I keep trying to remind myself that. I just miss him. I’m scared to sleep alone so I’ve just stopped sleeping, but then I’m exhausted all day, so I fall asleep the next night and the dreams come. This just needs to be over.”
“No, we just need to look into the legality of things. If you spoke to a therapist outside the school, I don’t think they are allowed to tell anyone about your relationship with Berneli. I’ll look into all this and then maybe we can get you some help. Until then, I think maybe you should look into a sexual assault support group. Someone there could have a way to help you.”
“After this weekend is over, I will definitely find one. Let me deal with this one problem first, and then we can tackle the sleeping. Maybe I’ll look so awful on Saturday that Finn won’t want me anymore.” She smiled and gently shoved me.
“Well, who could blame him, with bags under your eyes are the size of my tote bag?” I pushed her back and we went back to my room.
“Shut up,” she said, laughing. “I just need more make-up.”
“Yes, that’s the answer to everything.”
Violet tried to leave, but I insisted she sleep in my bed with me. If she was going to have terrors, I’d wake her up immediately. If she changed locations, there was a chance the terrors wouldn’t come, after all, they didn’t happen at Christie’s. Maybe she needed to change rooms since her scared her so much. Sure, she’d had some terrors in London, but she said they didn’t happen every night.
We awoke to the sound of the alarm screaming and not Violet. She made it through the night without a terror and looked better than ever now that the bags under her eyes were the size of a small clutch.
She left to get ready and that was when I heard her scream. I ran out the door and stopped short when I saw what was waiting for her.
“Is that what I think it is?” I asked as she fell to her knees.
There was a vase of wilted violets in front of her door with a card taped to it. I reached down and opened it.
My Vivacious Violet,
I assume the snow delayed your visit so I checked the weather for this weekend. What do you know, it’s going to be forty degrees and sunny. I will see you then. Remember, I have spies everywhere. Don’t think I don’t know about your study session last night.
Ever yours,
Finn
“What does it say?” she asked in a monotone voice. She sounded defeated and crushed and it pulled at my heart.
“It just says he knows about the snow and it will be forty and sunny this weekend, so he’s excited to see you,” I said, sticking the note in my pocket before she could read the whole thing.
“Thanks for not telling me the rest. I don’t want to know.” She nodded and then walked into her room. I followed quickly, leaving the flowers in the hallway.
“Okay, can we go to the police station now and report this? It looks like a threat.” The flowers were dead; it felt like that was what Finn was going to do to her.
“Yeah, you’re right. It just got serious. But first, I need to call David. Would you excuse me for a second?” she asked as she sat on her bed and pulled her phone out.
“No problem.” I turned to leave, but she stopped me before I got to the door.
“Annabelle, please take the note with you. I don’t want the police to see it.”
“I’ve already got it along with the tape from the vase.” I walked out and was going to head to my room, but I needed some air. I felt like the world was closing in around me and I couldn’t breathe.
I pushed through the door and stumbled to the nearest bench. There I sat, my head between my knees, no coat, no make-up, no shoes, no bra, and no idea what to do. I tried to calm the fear that was raising up inside of me and threatening to come out. I lifted my head and looked at the sun, wondering what we were going to do.
“What the hell happened? Was it Kingsley? If he hurt you, I’ll kill him,” Jason warned as he sat down next to me. I didn’t even hear him come up.
“It’s not Kingsley, it’s Violet. Someone left her a vase of dead flowers and a note.” I handed it to him and he took a moment to read it.
“Come with me,” he insisted as he grabbed my hand and pulled me with him. “By the way, next time you have a panic attack, grab your coat.” He slid his off and draped it over my shoulders.
“Sorry, I will remember that for next time. By the way, how did you know I was here?” I followed him to his room and sat on his bed, like I had a million times before.
“I am stalking you as well.”
“Seriously, not funny at this moment.”
“Honestly, I just wanted to see if you and Violet wanted to grab breakfast or something. It was a crazy coincidence. I don’t know. I just felt like I needed to see you guys. Guess my Spidey Senses knew something was wrong.”
Jason grabbed his laptop and took a seat next to me. “Look, I’ve been saving this until it was ready because I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it. Violet gave me the photo and I’ve been messing with it.” He pulled up some computer system and showed me the initial picture of Violet and Berneli kissing in front of the apartment complex.
“Okay, what did you do? It looks the same.”
“Patience. Wait for everything to load.” He clicked around on the screen and another picture popped up, but I wasn’t ready for what I saw. It was Berneli and me kissing. My eyes grew wide and my mouth dropped to the floor.
“What the hell? This never happened. Oh my god, you can’t show this to Violet.” I was furious. What was he doing?
“You don’t get it?” he asked, looking at me incredulously.
“No! Are you trying to screw with me?”
“Did this ever happen?”
“Of course not! I would never do that to Violet. Besides, I’m with Kingsley.”
“Exactly. It never happened. But what does it look like?”
“Shut up! You made that?” I couldn’t believe it. This could solve her issue with Finn. If we could make the dean think the original picture of Violet and Berneli was fake, then Violet couldn’t be blackmailed. We could go to the police and they wouldn’t have to know about Berneli and Violet’s relationship. “This is brilliant.”
“It gets better. Just in case they thought this was fake, I took a picture of the dean and…” He pulled up another picture and sure enough, the dean and Berneli appeared to be kissing each other.
“But how did you do this? How could you do this?”
“It’s not that hard. I’m just a bit of a social media creep. You and Kingsley posted a disgusting kissing photo from that Christmas festival, so I used it here. The dean was kissing her husband at their anniversary party last week. The rest of it was painstaking details that took me forever.” He was practically shaking with excitement and I didn’t know what to say.
“Jason, this is…”
“I know. I couldn’t let him play with our girl like that.”
The panic I had felt before was lifting off my chest and I pulled him into a huge hug. This could really work. He held me tight and rested his chin on my head. “I don’t know what to say. Earlier, Violet was talking about transferring schools, and I can’t imagine being here without her.”
“Don’t worry, if there is something I can do, I won’t hesitate.”
“I know, and that’s why I love you.” Oh shit. I froze. What the hell did I just say to him?
Jason pulled back and looked at me. Really looked at me. I stared back and waited to see what he had to say.
“You know, I mean I love you like a—”
But he cut me off. “Are you happy with Kingsley?”
“Yes,” I uttered.
“Do you feel butterflies when he’s near you?”
“Yes.”
“When he kisses you, do your knees give in?”
“Yes.”
“How about now, how do you feel now?”
I couldn’t move. I just stared back at him as what felt like hours went by. He reached out and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. Tingles shot through me and I tried to control my shaking as I took a ragged breath.
“I don’t know how I feel.”
Jason leaned forward so he was inches from my face. “How do you feel now?”
“I—”
He cut me off with a kiss. Jason’s lips were smooth and tasted like peppermint. I leaned into the kiss and then ran my fingers through his hair and it felt wrong. I jumped back and stared at Jason in shock.
“No, you can’t do this! We can’t do this. You have Janice and I have Kingsley. Why would you even do that? Don’t you love Janice?”
Jason stood up and started pacing the room. He started to talk and then closed his mouth again. I just watched as he seemed to be deep in thought. I didn’t know what I was waiting for. What did I want him to say?
“Yes, I do love Janice, but I’m just—”
I jumped up and pointed a finger in his face. “Confused, I know. But you know what, I’m not going to be this girl. I won’t be the girl who helps you figure out that you’re madly in love with your girlfriend. I refuse to let you use me like that. I have too much respect for myself and too much respect for Janice.”
“You don’t even like Janice.”
“No, I don’t like her, but that’s not the point. I won’t be this girl again. Kenny tried to play me and I won’t let you do it too.” I grabbed his computer and turned to walk out the door.
“It’s not like that, Annabelle. I just—”
“No, I’m done. We need to get this computer to Violet before she does something she’ll regret. We’ve already wasted enough time.” I left the room, still wearing his jacket, and practically ran to her room.
When I knocked, Violet was sitting on the floor, knees at her chest, and tears falling down her face. I put the computer down and turned around to hug her, but Jason was already there.
“Vi, take a deep breath. I found a way to fix everything. Just get up and let me show you on my computer.”
Violet nodded and let Jason pull her up and place her in the desk chair. He quickly brought up the pictures and explained to her what he had told me earlier.
Violet threw her arms around Jason. “You’re quite possibly one of the most amazing men on the face of the planet. David just called me and said the investigator has a lead as to who the outside help is but he isn’t sure of anything yet. We don’t know if Trent is the only one helping Finn. I am so scared.”
“Well, Vi, let’s go to the police. They need to know about all of this and we need to keep you safe. They can probably sort that out a lot faster than the investigator.” Jason grabbed her coat off of the back of her chair and draped it over her shoulders like he had done to me earlier.
I looked down and realized I still had no bra or shoes on.
“Um, guys, do you mind if I meet you at the security office? I need to put some clothes on.” I crossed my arms to try to cover my boobs. Besides, I could use a minute alone to get over what just happened with Jason.
“Yeah, I got her,” Jason said, and we all left. Violet went to pick up the flowers, but I stopped her.
“Wait, get a scarf or something to preserve the fingerprints.”
“You already touched it and so did I. Plus, we took the card off,” she reminded me.
“But still, you never know what they’ll find,” I insisted.
“Fine,” she said, and went back in her room. Jason and I were in the hall alone. He looked at his feet and I stared at a hole in the wall. It was crushing me to think we’d just ruined our friendship. I should have stopped it earlier or something.
But then a voice in my head said, You didn’t want him to stop. I pushed that voice away and went in my room to change, leaving him alone in the hallway. I did want him to stop, which was why I pulled away.
***
When I walked up to the security office, Violet and Jason were standing outside.
“What’s going on?” I asked, looking at the two of them.
“Look who’s at the front desk.” Violet pointed to the secretary who was nasty to her when she tried to report Finn the first time.
“So why are you still out here? Let’s go in and speak to the chief. He already knows you, and I’m sure he wants to hear about this. If not, we’ll call 9-1-1 and get a different set of cops,” I insisted, and opened the door for the two of them, not entirely sure if that was how this all worked. But I needed to stay strong. “Let’s go,” I reiterated when Violet didn’t move straight away.
Jason caught on and gave her a little push on her lower back.
We all walked up to the desk and the secretary glared at Violet.
“What do you want? Are you trying to ruin someone else’s life?” she asked, snapping her gum.
“I need to speak to Chief Johnson,” Violet responded with as much authority as she could muster.
The secretary gave Violet a snide look and snickered. “Well, he’s busy. Why don’t you all come back later? Don’t you have to go to class or something?”
“Listen, you played this game last time and it almost got me raped. So excuse me if I don’t give a crap about what you have to say.” Violet tilted her head, smiled, and then walked around her desk. She bolted toward the back where the chief’s office was.
Jason and I looked at each other, wide-eyed, and ran after her. We caught up in the chief’s office. He was standing and shaking Violet’s hand. She quickly reminded the chief of my name and then introduced Jason.
“All right, Miss Carrington, what can I do for you? You mentioned my secretary was causing some problems.”
“Chief, as I told you last time, I tried to report the incident but your secretary made light of the whole thing and more or less forced me to reconsider talking to someone. I came here with other problems relating to Officer Finn and she wouldn’t let me speak to you.”
“All right, we can worry about that later. What’s going on with Officer Finn?”
Violet explained about the flowers and placed the vase on his desk. Then Violet took a deep breath and handed him the initial note and the picture the stalker had left.
“I was afraid to come in before. I didn’t want someone to think anything of this. But he’s blackmailing me with this picture.”
“Well, relationships with professors are against the school’s rules,” the chief reminded us.
“Look, Chief Johnson.” Jason pulled up his phone and showed him the pictures he had been working on. Before we came to the office, he had emailed them to himself. “He is trying to get back at Violet. I made the same pictures on my computer. Here is one with the dean of students hooking up with Professor Berneli.” Jason handed his phone to the chief, who let out a subtle laugh.
“Well, we know this didn’t happen.” He handed the phone back to Jason but kept the picture of Violet and Berneli. “We will contact the jail and look into this. Until we get an answer, I need you to report any further communication that might come your way.”
“Thank you, Chief,” Violet said, managing a weak smile.
“Is there anyone you think could be working with Finn? Is there anyone who may be creating drama or threatening you?”
Violet sat quietly for a few minutes and then looked at the door. “Chief, I think something is going on with Trent, a senior here. He delivered me one of the notes. I don’t know about these flowers, but he got physical with me last semester and he was passing—”
“What do you mean he got physical with you?”
“He grabbed my arm and wouldn’t let me go. I had a mark on my arm for two weeks. Annabelle was with me. She can vouch for it.”
“Did you take pictures of the bruises?”
“No.”
“Did you film it, text about it? Any kind of proof? Right now, it would just be your word against his.”
“No, I didn’t. I didn’t want to make a big deal about it.”
“Miss Carrington, I cannot do anything about him, then. Did Trent threaten you?”
“Well, no, but—”
“Officer Finn is not allowed to contact you, Miss Carrington. If Trent is delivering messages, then we will sort that out. Let us handle it. Until then, I’d suggest you file a restraining order against Trent. Other than that, there is not much else we can do.”
“I understand,” Violet replied. She took a deep breath and I hoped this would help give her some peace of mind.
“I don’t want you going to see Finn, understand? Don’t worry about the picture, don’t worry about any of it. Going to see him will only give him what he wants and continue to perpetuate this obsession he’s carrying.”
“Right,” Violet agreed. I was thrilled she didn’t have to go. Nothing good could have come from it.
We talked over some more specifics with the restraining order and went to leave, but the chief stopped us.
“By the way, Miss Carrington, does Professor Berneli know about this connection?”
“No,” she mumbled. “I wouldn’t have a reason to tell him since we aren’t in a relationship.”
Chief Johnson looked at her for a minute, not saying anything. At first, I thought he was going to call her out for the horrible liar she was. But instead, he grabbed his phone. “I will contact him for you. However, if I were you, I’d be careful to ensure no other fake pictures are taken. That would not look good for anyone.”
“Thank you.”
We left and Violet collapsed on a bench near our dorm.
“I feel like I can breathe a little. Finn must have been bluffing about sending in the picture, or maybe the school mail lost it or something. Chief Johnson had no idea about that picture until we showed it to him. That’s a relief.”
“For now.”
Jason and Violet whipped around and looked at me.
“Sorry. It just seems to me this is not gonna be the first time someone finds out about your relationship. I feel like it’s time you decide what you want. He’s leaving in a couple months, what’s gonna happen then and is it worth getting kicked out of school?”
“Annabelle,” Jason chastised at me. “I don’t think this is the time to be bringing this up.”
“Why not? Something could have happened to her. Something could still happen to her. What if someone else finds out? Clearly Chief Johnson knows something is up.”
“I know,” Violet said softly. She looked up at me, tears filling her brown eyes. “I’m afraid to have that conversation with him. I don’t think my heart could take it.”
Jason reached down and pulled her into a hug. “Vi, you don’t have to deal with this right now. Just relax and try to enjoy the time you guys have left.”
“I love the two of you dearly, but I can’t keep talking about this. David has become so important to me and I know he’ll be leaving. We don’t have a plan. Maybe I should just end it with him. Save us a lot of heartache in the future.” Tears started streaming down her face and she took a couple deep breaths.
“On top of that, I’m scared. What if Trent tries something? What if he and Finn are teaming up to screw with me”
“I agree it sounds bad, but why does Trent care? It doesn’t make sense. It’s not like he and Finn were close or anything. I mean, did you notice anything?” I asked her.
“No, I never saw anything between them. Maybe he has some blackmail on Trent or something. I don’t know. I just can’t keep doing this.”
“So what can we do to help you?” I asked her gently. My heart broke to see her so defeated. This was Violet. Anything was possible with her. She always found a way, and that was one of the things I loved about her. Now, she was so deflated, and I couldn’t do anything to help her.
“One of you needs to go talk to David. Jason, it’d be great if you did it so you could show him the pictures. And, Annabelle, I need to get to class. Why don’t we get our things? I know how you feel about being late.”
“It doesn’t matter, Violet. I just—”
“I know. I just can’t talk about it anymore.”
We agreed and Jason stormed off to talk to Berneli. Violet turned and looked at me.
“What?”
“So, Jason showed you the computer stuff. It was lucky he figured all that out. Did you know he was working on it?”
“No, he showed me for the first time today.” I thought back to being in the room with him and of when he kissed me. I was completely distracted that I tripped over a root.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, why?
“Where did you just go? It seemed like you went far away. What’s going on?”
“We don’t need to talk about this now.”
“Just tell me what happened. I could use the distraction.”
We started walking up to our rooms and I filled her in on the kiss.
“I just feel so guilty. Kingsley deserves better than that. I can’t believe Jason made me cheat on Kingsley like that.”
“Okay, let’s calm down for a second. Jason didn’t make you cheat. There is a split second before a kiss that you know it’s coming. If you really wanted to avoid it, you could have. Are you honestly telling me that for just one second you didn’t enjoy that kiss?”
I opened my mouth to shut her down immediately but closed it again. I couldn’t lie to her.
“Fine, I enjoyed it for a second but then I remembered Kingsley and Janice. I also enjoy kissing Kingsley and I hope Jason enjoys kissing Janice. It doesn’t mean I want to go out and buy his and hers towels with Jason. It just means I like kissing. Give me more of the drinks Christie makes and I may even kiss you.”
“I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing. Jason was trying to show you that he has feelings for you.”
“Right, and when I asked him if he still loved Janice, he said yes. It’s over. I’m not playing games with Jason anymore. I’m going to enjoy my time with Kingsley. It…it just doesn’t matter with Jason anymore. He made his choice.”
“Why did you ask him if he loved her?”
“Because I needed to know.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
“Right, so I’ll just finish that since you’re too scared to say it. Because you wanted him to tell you that he didn’t love her. You wanted him to come out and tell you he was in love with you.”
“But he didn’t.
“I kinda think he did. I notice you didn’t talk about your feelings.”
“All my feelings are with Kingsley. I stopped crushing on Jason when Kingsley and I got together.”
“Then you wouldn’t be this upset.”